Las Vegas, NV — CONEXPO-CON issued an update Monday urging show attendees to avoid shaking hands during North America’s largest construction trade show.
Show organizers stress that attendance is still expected to exceed 2017 numbers and that the show is taking the health and safety of attendees seriously.
We have had NO major exhibit cancellations. Most of our top exhibitors have been onsite for weeks moving in equipment and setting up their booth space. These exhibitors have been following the move-in schedule protocols and we anticipate all exhibitors will be moved in and ready for the shows’ opening day on Tuesday, March 10. Cancellations have been limited to China-based companies without U.S. operations.
On the attendee side, we have had China-based registrants cancel due to the travel restrictions and, more recently, a small number of registrants from Italy and Korea. We anticipate some additional impact from international registrants in the affected countries. That said, advance registration is well ahead of the 2017 show and we anticipate 130,000+ attendees.
We are in contact with the Southern Nevada Health District and they have assured us that no known cases of COVID-19 are in the area. In addition, all 11 Las Vegas airports have screening protocols in place.
We are taking steps to address concerns by providing heightened levels of cleanliness, including:
- Working with the LVCC to ensure additional hand sanitizers will be provided throughout the shows, including Festival Grounds and Westgate.
- Providing hand sanitizers in all registration areas, media rooms, information stands, the international trade center, meeting/education spaces, workforce and VIP areas, including several areas on the show grounds.
- Providing additional hand sanitizers and cleaning protocols in all monorail stations.
- Adding staff to increase cleaning of all common areas using strong disinfectant to clean those areas used more frequently, especially tables, keyboards/screens, door handles, etc.
